Our Grand Return

We're finally back home! After leaving as evacuees before Ike hit on Thursday, Sept. 11th, it's been a long trip....very fun, but long. I'll try not to tell too much because I have TONS of pictures to share. There are even more coming from when I forgot my camera.

So, we left Thursday morning, the storm hit Friday night and lasted pretty much through Sunday afternoon. The winds did the most damage around our area, but after the winds blew through, the rains did their part too. There was some serious flooding, and after having wind damage, even more than there should have been. Our house is fine, Marcus' parent's house is fine, his brother's house is fine, but many houses are not. We feel very lucky to have a house to come home to.

Anyway, Monday and Tuesday after the storm were pretty much spent cleaning up at Marcus' parent's house. Marcus was a "real man" with his big, manly chainsaw!! We all pitched in and had a good time together cleaning up all the debris. We were especially lucky that the weather was so wonderful...it was in the 70's during the day and probably less than 60's at night. We did have a generator so we had lights and fans, but we didn't even have anything turned on at night, just opened the windows. Wednesday we were on a plane to Oregon and that afternoon I actually got to take a hot shower and wash my hair...Marcus didn't understand why that was so important!! Hello!! I had been taking cold baths/showers since Saturday and hadn't been able to wash my hair...yuck!! Here are some pictures from the aftermath of Ike. Pictures of Oregon to come.

This was one of two trees in the front yard of Marcus' parent's house (Marcus' tree).This was a huge oak tree out behind their house....WAS.This is just the front view. Where'd it go? This was the top of the tree after Marcus got a hold of it with the chainsawThis was the beginning of the pile of limbs we were cleaning up from the yard.My man at work.

This is the pile as it continued to grow...yes, it got even bigger before Marcus set fire to it.
Cali LOVES the tractor, but you can't really tell from the look on her face!This was in Crosby, not too far from our house...scary.
As we were driving through Crosby this was the scene of most of the town!!
I have more pictures, but my computer is acting up right now. We don't even have internet or tv right now...I'm using Marcus' work laptop (wireless is great!). Life is beginning to somewhat return to normal around the area. A lot of people are still without power so I feel extremely blessed that we do!! I did mention in my last post that we were in Oregon...I do have some pictures from that trip as well, but that will have to be the next post because of the dumb computer. So, more to come....stay tuned. ;)